Spartacus interview #5 (of 5): Katrina Law

This year’s San Diego Comic Con definitely proved that if you’re willing to fight for it, you’ll get to see something good. Stepping up and fighting for a spot in the press room for the upcoming season ofSpartacus was certainly worth the experience. I’d like to present a press round table in five parts. The finale of this panel discussion is with the lovely actress Katrina Law, whom we will be seeing a lot more of this coming season as new escaped slave, Mira.

Question: So are you and Spartacus going to run into each other? Or what’s going on?

Law: Well, um, yes! Well, let’s see. Well Mira is, um, I feel freely that she’s pretty, uh, heavily in love with Spartacus at this point and I think as a newly freed slave one of the things that’s going on with her is, she’s number one trying to figure out what it means to be free and what it means to be a free person. How she fits into society now that she can make her own decisions, now that she can figure out what she wants to eat, when she wants to eat, where she wants to sleep, who she can love, what she wants to wear. All of these things are really new for her so another journey that she’s going through is: what is love, what does it mean to her? What does Spartacus mean to her? And what she’s willing to go through to get that love and to fight for it. So yeah, she goes through a journey with him, and she never really expects to replace Sura because that was one of the main reasons she fell in love with Spartacus in the first place. It was that he was so faithful and loyal to Sura and even in death her memory was so strong and he was so passionate about her and that’s what made him stand out from the rest for her. Here was this man who was so dedicated and of course any woman wants a piece of that and I think she’s just fighting for that. To see if she can at least get onto some kind of level playing field with him. So we’ll see where that takes her.

Question: Steven said that there would be women fighting in this season. Are you going to be throwing down with anyone?

Law: Well Mira is very feisty. Um, I wouldn’t be surprised if she gets her hands a little dirty. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see a lot of slaves that never really had the chance to get down and dirty getting down and dirty because we have to survive. We’re on the run and different people find different ways to survive. Different ways to find their place within the rebel camp and it’s really interesting to watch who chooses what path to take and where that journey takes them and what it means to them. Um, for Mira, she’s definitely in that word. She was a sex slave and she was forced to have sex with men, now she gets to decided do I want to have sex with them? Do I want to have sex with Spartacus? Do I wanna learn how to fight? Do I wanna just stay in the background and cook for the men? Do I want to follow the men? Do I want to stay in this camp or do I want to go off and do my own thing? So everybody is kinda faced with the same choices on one aspect or another and um, the rebel camp… it’s not a big happy family. People are fighting, and people have different opinions and it’s like trying to go out on politics on a presidential election. Trying to get everyone to agree on abortion, and all of these different things. It just gets crazy.

Question: With swords.

Law: Haha, yeah. Yeah, so it’s really interesting to see where the rebels take themselves. I mean, they’re fighting one thing but they’re also fighting themselves. So…

Question: It must be an incredible opportunity for you as an actress, you know? I’m free and I can do all these things with my character, do you have a lot of input on how you get to play your character?

Law: Well, in season one I didn’t have any input because I came in and everything had been written on paper already so I just had to make do and figure out where she went. But after season one most of the actors went into the writer room and we said “this is where our character was, this is where we are, this is where we see them going.” And, you know, I came in with ten different ideas of where Mira could possible go. It’s not to say “you need to do this with my character” ’cause I’m not the writer, but some of the ideas were taken onboard, but some of them also had already been planned by them. They were like “oh, we agree with you on that,” but I think the most interesting part about this is that… it’s such a foreign world and as an actor you always wanna protect your character. You wanna make them loveable, likeable. You wanna make them strong, you want them to be the hero, you want them to always be right. And if I had my choice of course, I’d be like “no, Mira does this dadadadada,” but unfortunately in life we make mistakes every day, we have bad decisions, we correct them, we do all of these different things. So a lot of times I get the script and I’m like, “girl! What are you doing?! Don’t do that!” So a lot of times that happens and if I had my choice she wouldn’t have done that but it’s such a more interesting journey to watch someone go left and then veer right and then go straight and step backwards and go through all of these things because we do that on a daily basis but we don’t quite admit to them… as much. So, so it’s been great. She’s a beautiful character and it’s a beautiful show to be on and I feel really lucky because Lord knows when I was going to have an opportunity to play something like this. I think this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. So I’m really just kind of holding onto it for as much as it’s worth.

Question: Can you go into Mira’s background a little bit? Her back-story? Before she was a slave? How she became a slave, all that…?

Law: You know, it was interesting because um, you don’t really find out much about her back-story this season. Whether or not you do if there’s a season three, I don’t know. But, for… as an actor, whenever something was presented to me I had to justify why she does this and whatever. So I’d come up with a back-story and then I would get the next script and I’d be like “oh, so now I just change this back-story because now it doesn’t work for this one,” and by the end of it I’ve already changed my back-story for this girl 11 times. So *laugh* and then I was just told by the writer’s “oh none of that works, you know, she’s been a slave her entire life.” And I’m like “oh.” So I really don’t know, I just know I have to keep coming up with things to justify what it is that she does and as far as I was concerned in the beginning she was a freed slave that had been captured and done all these things and now I’ve found out she’s been a slave her entire life and I’m like “interesting.” Yeah, so one of these days it will be revealed to you as well as me. We’ll find out together.

Question: What was it like in the first season? You know, you kind of came in the middle and the roll started to gain strength towards the end and you play a big part and now you’re like a full time cast member in the second season. Is it just a huge cha
nge to be there every day? Every episode…?

Law: It’s definitely a step up as far as where I want my career to go and of course walking in on the first season it had already been six months for everybody else, so I was the new kid on the block and I was coming in. Friends were already friends, and everybody knew all these stories and dadadada, and I was kinda in this big game of catch-up, and everybody was really welcoming. So it wasn’t like I was being ostracized from the group or anything like that. But you know, you kind of walk in and you don’t really know where you fit in, whereas this season I’m walking in with a lot more confidence going “this is the city, I’ve already lived here, these are the producers, this is the cast…” so pretty much Liam’s the new guy on the block right now and I know everybody’s been working really hard to welcome him in as quickly as possible and make him feel comfortable. And being how I was new last year I know what it feels like for him, so… it’s been uh… yeah.

Question: How has it been going from working with Andy to Liam? Is it different?

Law: Oh of course, they’re completely different, they’re polar opposites with things. Andy was just wonderful and amazing and beautiful and um with everything that he’s going through you just kinda gotta wish him well and keep praying for him and what not. But, um, Liam stepped into shoes that are nearly impossible to fill, I mean… I would never, ever wanna be him. But, lemme tell ya, this boy, this man has come in and just been humble and gracious and professional and has just come in with just this great spirit of “I wanna join this cast and I wanna work and I’m willing to take on suggestions, I have suggestions to give.” And… it’s been really good and um… with all the pressure that he’s under I really respect him for how well he’s handled how he’s doing it on set and off set so… it’s been good. It’s been good.

Question: If you could steal anybody else’s part on the show, who would it be and why?

Law: Yeah!! Um… no I really would, yeah. He’s a 6’4″ black man. No, I think I would wanna be Lucretia or Ilithyia or any one of the females on the Roman side just so I could have make-up and no dirt on me for a day. And shoes! And not have self-tanner on and have a dress that’s just kinda flowy. Half the time the rest of the female slaves and I, we just kinda look over at the Romans and we’re like “ugh!” There’s just grime and filth, but I think it would be a lot of fun just because it’s so different it almost feels like it’s two different sets. This season it’s just been the Romans and then there’s the rebels and two completely different worlds. I think that’s really going to translate well on screen. You’re just going to see how luxurious and lavish they are and how… how sparse and desperate we are.

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